Horrible colors on external monitor using macbook air(2012) with mini dp to hdmi

Sinoue,

I have tried with Bootcamp. No problems. Display looks stunning. No need to calibrate the dispaly or mess around with profiles at all. Seems to point to two things

a) This is a problem related to OSX so isn't fundamentally about the hardware.

b) It is specific to the 2012 line (my 2009 Pro runs fine, same monitor, same cables, Snow Leopard and Lion)

Following on from point (b) the only thing specific to the 2012 line that may be playing a part is the HD 4000 graphics chip. Thus it would seem to be a problem with the way OSX communicates with the HD 4000 graphics chip to drive the external HDMI display.

Awaiting a call from the Engineering department who are due to get in touch today. Will let you know what they say.

Nice summary Biggles Smith. I would add that DVI appears not as good as when I plug in my wife's MBP. This could point to something more generic in the video display, although I admit VGA is fine.

Very anxious to hear results. I am supposed to get in touch with them to but working 60 hrs/week is making this all the more difficult.

I am relieved that it seems it's not hardware-specific. I do NOT relish the idea of re-formatting another MBA to my liking.😐

I agree that even the DVI was not great, albiet much better than HDMI. My solution was simple: return my MBA for a refund. I'm not happy about it, because the other features on the computer were great. But after paying a several hundred-dollar premium over similar Intel-based hardware, I expected a more robust response from engineering. (Quite frankly, I find Apple's response to be a bit sloppy.)

To be fair, every single support person I talked with was courteous and nice, and I believe they truly wanted to help me resolve the issue. (When calling in the final return, I could feel the rep's heartbreak that I had not been satisfied with my purchase.) Unfortunately, there seems to be some sort of firewall between customer support and engineering. Alas, my only recourse was to send the Mac back.

Guys, I've found a workaround that works for both VGA and HDMI issues, to enable you to use the MBA at clients/concerts/universities/other offices etc. It's not elegant, but it works:

- Turn off MBA completely

- Plug into an HDMI or VGA (perhaps ANY) screen

- Boot up and it'll be perfect; as others have already reported

- Now, here's the trick, u can suspend/sleep the MBA now, THEN unplug the screen, move to your new venue, THEN plug in the other screen/p[rojector, and turn back on again and it'll work!

- ie this enables you to set up an external display at work, pre-load all your presentation/content/web pages, close MBA and go to client/lecture hall, then plug into a projector there without having lost your content

So, in short, provided the MBA is fooled into thinking it was powered up with a screen connected, it'll work thereafter. PROVIDED it is not given the chance to think otherwise 🙂 ie don;t unplug screen whilst it is awake.

This SO speaks to a perfectly solvable firmware/driver issue. Probably around power management.

ChrisBZA and LT Mac User - I can confirm that I've tried it from a cold boot with the external HDMI plugged in and it does NOT make a difference for me. I guess YMMV

I think the only people getting this working are dual-booting Windows

I'll be keen to hear from anyone who gets a response on this one directly from Apple!

All I had to do was to close the lid of my macbook air while it is connected to an external Samsung T220HD. And boom, the resolution is as it is meant to be. As soon as I open the lid of my laptop, everything(fonts, blank strips onthe bottom and above the OSX window) goes horrible.

(I couldn't solve the issue with my mac mini, it works well with Samsung LED TV but not with T220HD)

I'm running on Mountain Lion by the way...

Hi everyone,

I have been in touch with a senior advisor at Apple. We have tried a couple of more things to make my Macbook pro (mid 2012) work properly with an external screen via HDMI. We tried doing a clean install of the OS via internet recovery and then an update. It didn't help - the colours are still washed out.

The advisor claims that it must be a software issue and has contacted the engineers team. I am supposed to get in touch with them again in a few days and try a few more things with the engineers. I will report back.

Should this not work, I have been told that I can request a replacement of the Macbook.

By the way, the advisor told me that he has the very same Macbook Pro from mid 2012 and it works fine with a Samsung TV via HDMI, so the problem does not affect all Macbooks.

marcinetti,

I was really frustrated as well but decided to wait for a while and not return it at this point (I have MBP Mid 2012 too).

I just started using MDP to VGA, it's not perfect but it is much better than HDMI.

It is definitely driver issue, so it is not a hardware deffect or something, which means there should a solution (hopefully sooner than later).

Cheers

I just want to sound off and say I have the very same issue. Brand new MBA 2012. Pulled it out and hooked it up to my external display using a mini display port to HDMI cable. Brand new, less than 4 hours old. I get poor resolution and really saturated colors. I am going to mono price.com and buy a mini display port to display port cable. I have a Dell U2410 and it has VGA, DVI, DisplayPort and Hdmi. I am wondiering if the external connection is display port if the situation will improve.

My guess is no. This is most likely a problem with a driver. Espeically since Windows appears to be just fine. I guess we need to wait for Mountain Lion 10.8.1 and get the driver fix.

I just recieved my MBA about an hour ago, and was deeply disappointed to find out about this issue. Same problem as the OP - washed out colors when connected to an external Samsung display via the moshi mini-DP to HDMI adapter.

Calreth, you are absolutely right!

And also, I was wondering if anyone here know a person in the media, that doesn't work for Apple, so they can spread the word about this issue?

I know a guy in UK and I will try to contact him and see what he can do about it 😉

Gubble,

I had been thinking this would be good idea as well. I don't know, but I would imagine that most of the main tech websites would have some kind of "editorial" contact where you can get in touch with them to raise possible stories / issues that they might like to cover. They must always be looking for new stories to write about. Getting this problem discussed in the media must surely only help to get it recognised as an official problem by Apple (I think we can unfortunately be quite sure that it is indeed a problem).

As with others who have posted on this forum I am still is discussions with Apple Care who are, full credit to them, taking it very seriously and running through a range of solutions / information gathering exercises to try and pin it down. Obviously this takes time though, and the sooner it is recognised as a problem that is not just isolated to a few cases, the sooner they will hopefully start to look at solutions seriously.

If I have a moment later I may fire off some emails (and will refer to this discssion thread) to see if there are any favourable responses....

Considering that Mountain Lion is still on the intial release I doubt it will be news worthy. Now if the first update doesn't fix it, I would be willing to scream to the press. I am sure the Intell 4000HD driver is going to be updated to fix the problem. Patience. I am more inclined to be patient as this problem has been reported to customer service and they have acknowleged that engineering has been notified (whatever that means).

Apple has never released an update outside of their normal cadence. Running to the press isn't going to change that now. Besides the press is enjoying the Samsung Vs Apple trial too much to have any resources to spend on us poor people who cant hook up our hdmi displays to our displayport macs.

This is one of the problems with macs when it doesn't "just work" you are at apple's mercy to fix it. You cant go to intel (in this case) and download the latest driver.

red.radar,

You have some gooid points there, but the one that we have to be left at Apple's mercy is not.

We have paid them a premium price for premium quality and service. Saying this again, but this is my first Mac and I don't want to be (too) disappointed with it..

Also, the problem was present in Lion as well and I think it's not the OS version but as you said - just the driver.